Fallball Check-In: Lehigh Mountain Hawks

Now in his fourth year as Smith Family Head Lacrosse Coach, Kevin Cassese is looking to continue to build his legacy with the Lehigh University men’s lacrosse program. The Mountain Hawks finished 8-7 last season, giving their head coach his first winning season at the helm. Last year’s squad was young, with a lot of key contributions coming from freshmen and sophomores. Their success, in spite of the lack of experience, gave the team a sense of confidence heading into their 2010-2011 campaign.

Though their fall campaign has come to a close, many questions about the team have been answered. The Hawks had 20 practices packed into five weeks followed by an appearance in the Nick Colleluori Headstrong Classic held at Ridley High School in Pennsylvania to work on various things that will help them succeed with their goals come spring. In Ridley, the team faced off with Towson University and Fairfield University, winning both games 9-6 and 6-3 respectively. With all of this in mind, I sat down with Head Coach Kevin Cassese to discuss the team’s progress through the fall season.

Fall Focus

Cassese said the team needed to take a different approach this fall. In years past, fall practices consisted of a lot of stick-work, shooting and work on other basic mechanics. This year, Cassese and his staff opted to use more half-field work to improve on game situations, both offensively and defensively.

“It went really well,” Cassese said. “[The players] definitely have a better idea of what we’re asking them to do come game time.” The Hawks also added a new coach to their already potent staff in Dan Keating. Keating comes to the Hawks after working with three well-known high school programs, Malvern Prep (Pa.), St. Joseph’s Prep (Pa.) and The Taft School (Ct.).

Cassese is happy to have another fellow Duke University graduate on the staff and believes he will be an essential part of the team’s progress this year. Working primarily on offensive mechanics and the extra man unit, Keating levels the staff as he and Cassese run the offense and Taylor Wray and Brendan Callahan work with the defense and goalies.

Fresh Faces

The Hawks welcomed eleven freshmen this season. Overall Cassese has been happy with their performance throughout the fall. A few, however, have made significant impacts. Ty Souders, a 6’1” 210 pound defenseman from Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pa. started at close defense in both games for the Hawks at the Colleluori Classic. Souders is a physical defender who plays great positional defense.

Two freshmen from Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pa. have also shown that they can make an impact early for the Hawks. Matt Smith has split time between attack and midfield. He was able to tally points in both of the games last weekend.

Smith’s high school teammate Ryan Buttenbaum has shown a lot of potential at the midfield due to his skills at the faceoff X. Buttenbaum will look to be part of what Cassese termed the “three-headed monster” at the faceoff X consisting of Buttenbaum, senior captain Will Scudder and emerging sophomore Ryan Snyder. Last weekend, Snyder went 18-2 in his draws.

Top Guns

The Hawks return a lot of producers from last year’s roster. Rather than selecting with his staff, Cassese allows the team to select their captains at the end of the fall. Three seniors have emerged as the leaders both on and off the field.

One captain, senior defenseman Richard Bradley, will direct the defense in front of sophomore goalie Dan Carr. Carr started 13 games last season for the Hawks and had a nice fall season.

The other two captains will control the field at the midfield. Senior Will Scudder will part of the “three-headed monster” at the faceoff X and Senior Jonathan Stumpf has emerged as another leader on the first midfield line.

Stumpf will be joined on the first line by “the twins” - Cameron and Roman Lao-Gosney, who served as an integral fixture in the offense last year. Alongside the twins, the Hawks also return their two leading scorers on attack in sophomores David DiMaria and Dante Fantoni. Fantoni posted 40 points last season, while DiMaria led the team in assists.

Key Battles

Cassese is interested to see what happens at the face-off X. The team has three capable players to fill the role. The question is who will be most reliable come crunch time.

“No matter how you cut it,” Cassese said, “three great players, three great guys. They’re all going to help us at some point.”
With no seniors at attack, the Hawks will also see competition for those spots. According to Cassese, there are five or six players who are capable of earning that starting spot.

Fall Tradition

Every fall, the Hawks host their “Community Night” for residents of the Lehigh Valley. On October 1, the players and coaches put on a free hour-long clinic for local youth and high school lacrosse players. This was followed by an inter-squad brown and white scrimmage. Teams for the scrimmage are selected draft-style by Assistant Coaches Callahan and Wray. This year team brown was able to edge out the white team 9-4.

The team also participates in a community service project every year in conjunction with Bethlehem Parks and Recreation. Done during the first week of classes, in years past the team has cleaned Saucon Creek and Johnson Park among others. This year, the team assisted with demolition and cleanup at the Bethlehem Ice Rink.